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Mighty Ducks: The Animated Series - Power Play
Reviewed: 07/15/2014
Feel The Lameness Of This Episode Title!
Okay; our next episode of this show features something that actually factors into the selling of the game to kids: The role of the goon. Apparently; this goon hates the Mighty Ducks for making him look bad and wants revenge on them; leading to Grin thinking that this guy can turn over a new leaf and stop being a bully. I like this idea, except for the fact that this is the David Wise show. Meanwhile; Dragonous is basically creating more electric monsters. Cue Ricky Morton SMW promo against USWA's PG-13. And remember; this episode aired two episodes AFTER Zap Attack! Yeah. Let's rant on shall we...?!
This episode was written by David Wise, Robert N. Skir and Marty Isenberg with the story edited by David Wise. The animation is done by Sunwoo Animation.
We begin this one outside the Arrowhead Pond AFTER HAPPY HOUR (after dark) as we gets cars coming by and somehow the fans were teleported into line outside the arena as Roy Firestone cuts a promo about some special giveaway night that no kids could care about. So we see a few men waving Mighty Duck flags; and generally being sporty; until the giant screen television set turns off. One of the guys sounds like Bonkers so it's Jim Cummings voicing it as I discover that this is the power station and the power is going off. So the entire city goes into a blackout which is fitting because the Arrowhead Pond is sold out for the game. So we head to the power grid station as there is a lot of electricty in the air; but no heat coming from the heels as they are using a machine to absorb electricty. Wraith and Siege have their back turned to the hard cameras; and they are bopping up and down like a 16-bit RPG sprite in Breath of Fire. So Siege is shooting the thing towards the horizon as Wraith turns around and of course kills the incentive of watching this episode barely two minutes in; as the Aerowing comes down. The bottom opens and it's the babyfaces blowing them off for not paying the electric bill. HA! Mallory jumps down and invokes the pointy finger of death on Lizard Lips...ERRR...I mean Siege that it's game over. So Siege and Wraith simply teleport out with the machine device without a second thought; and then we see the power transmitter burning on up; and then suddenly, the lights come back on in the city. Ummm; I don't think it works that way dood! Duke is piloting the Aerowing noticing this as the ducks question this stealing of wattage. So Wildwing's wrist communicator turns on and it's Phil demanding that the ducks stop fooling around and get back to the game for the reporters to interview them. So we scene change to the announcer booth with Roy Firestone calling the action in a banana yellow suit. Get thee a fashion designer Roy! So it's the Mighty Ducks against the Polar Bears as we see the team with black and white uniforms come onto the ice. Sounds like a decent team to me...
One of them is a red haired guy who is not wearing a helmet at all addressed as Stanley Strazinski and he looks mean (Jim Cummings) as we discover that this is footage from a game against some team in red and white uniforms as Stanley is doing every illegal move in hockey because he leads the league in penalty minutes; which includes high sticking. Now in this world; high sticking means uppercutting the stick away from the player, instead of raising the stick and slashing it in the face like it usually is. Also; he has no fighting majors; but has clobbered a referee on camera, and there is no indication that he was suspended from the league because his clobbering of the official here was obviously intentional. So BS&P hates fighting; but clobbering a defenseless referee from behind on purpose is perfectly okay to show. So Wildwing is in hockey gear turning off the television as he tells the ducks to be careful out there as Mallory calls Stanley a goon; which Grin takes offense to. Nosedive cannot believe this nonsense and I have to agree with Mallory. Stanley MURDERED a referee clear as day ON PURPOSE! How can he NOT be a goon Grin?! Grin claims that hockey is noble which Nosedive mocks him to no end calling him crazy in roundabout terms; which was insulting. Grin then states that he was once like him and we HIT THE FLASHBACK~! Yes folks; Grin has a backstory in Puck World! This is turning into Loonatics Unleashed now in terms of not knowing how to explain each character without a backstory. So we head to the rink in Puck World as Young Grin (who looks like a older chicken hawk and without the muscle mass) is skating and MURDERS three ducks in hockey gear. Apparently; one of them was a woman since that one was wearing pink gear. I'm so conditioned to assuming that it was a woman since most female characters wear pink a lot in these shows. Anyhow; all three ducks take the bumps off the ice and look like the most miserable mallards you could ever see. None of them look like they are finished in terms of color styling and such. They look like dead ducks.
Anyhow; Grin is voiced by S. Scott Bullock here as then he stops instantly; and we pan over to see...Virgil from Mighty Max; only in duck form on skates with a hockey stick of his own. So Grin is stunned as the three teenage ducks (one of them looks like a tall platypus wearing all green, one of them is a girl with purple hair and the other one is fat wearing similar colors to Grin only with a different symbol on the chest (Grin's symbol is a large letter G while this guy's symbol is a blue number 2. ). The kids address this Mighty Max reject to be Tai Quack Do (one of them is voiced by J.D. Daniels by the way); who might be one of Drake Mallard's secret trainers. I don't know! Grin is not impressed by Tai's dare of shooting the puck at him; so Grin shoots the puck at him, so Tai grabs it with his hands with ease. Grin is shocked ans stammering like an idiot. I don't know why he was stammering for: Was it the puck grabbing; or Tai's low rent Master Splinter TMNT 4Kids voice? Grin wants to know how he did it and Tai jumps in and blows off Grin like a grumpy old man as we discover that the puck is attached to the stick on a rope. Wait, what? So Tai tells Grin that he needs enlightenment to temper his strength in the ways of hockey; and offers him to come to his dojo; which Grin skates with him without question. Yes; Tai was dishonest in fooling Grin into thinking that Tai was awesome when he was not; and he just goes with him anyway. So we head to the Tai Quack Do dojo which looks impressive until you realize that it's in some sewer, and thus comes off as a low rent TMNT element. Grin is kneeling down in front of Tai whom Tai calls Grin an icehopper. Oooookkkkkkaaaayyyy. So we go on and on and on and on as Tai just goes out of "Low Rent Master Splinter" to "Old Fart" in a matter of seconds; making me think Tai is really Chameleon in diguise. Sadly; that is not the case. Basically the joke implies that there is no sound when you have one team; because it takes two to make hockey. "Old Fart" Tai is at least more amusing than "Low Rent Master Splinter" Tai; so I'll take what little entertainment this is providing me.
Tai basically tells Grin that he should honor thy opposition because without it; there is no glory. That is so deep; it might as well be the most shallowest tripe in history. And no; they didn't explain how Grin joined the Mighty Ducks, so I don't care. We return to reality (no, not really) as Nosedive blows off Grin for having flashbacks; as Grin proclaims that he thinks there is some good in him; which Nosedive does the Baloo cuckoo non-verbal cue from Mommy For A Day. Wildwing's response is that Stanley is no good; but Tai's speech does makes sense in the context of "Even if Stanley plays dirty; they need to play clean"; which is the best babyface moment Wildwing has had thus far. So he turns on the remote control telling us that Stanley has been stopped before clean as we see the Mighty Ducks skate rings around him and make Stanley look like a complete fool before scoring. I think Nosedive was doing all this; so I cannot see why he is complaining about Grin's comments. So then we see Stanley on the monitor pissed off as Roy Firestone tells us that Stanley is out for revenge. I then discover that the monitor is from the Raptorous because Dragonous is showing a clench fist right in front of the monitor. Dragonous wants power in this episode and wants to use the RED LASER CANNON OF DEATH to create a huge monster to crush planet Earth. Wraith proclaims that they might not be so lucky next time since they barely escaped from the ducks at the beginning of the episode. Why should I care anyway? Siege then grabs the red gun of doom and asks about shooting the device at a human; which Dragonous states would turn him into a monster; but it would take a special kind of human. So the monitor is off pause and Stanley cuts an awesome promo about wanting to kill the Mighty Ducks and make them feel pain. What is the obsession with every heel wanting to turn the ducks into patte? Because it sounds like a low rent version of the "turtle soup" catchphrase used in TMNT. So Dragonous orders Siege to get Stanley and bring him to the Raptorous. So we head to the dressing room as all the players; but Stanley are leaving the dressing room.
Stanley finishes tying the laces to his skates and walks out of the dressing room. Siege teleports from behind and grabs Stanley. He teleports Stanley to inside the Raptorus. Stanley struggles weakly as he blows off Dragonous. Dragonous tells Stanley that he has a deal for him: Stanley gets to kill the ducks which Stanley has no problem with; but he wonders what Dragonous gets out of this. Dragonous ignores explaining that to him; telling him that he'll enhance his strength and abilities to squash the ducks flatter than patte so to speak. Stanley accepts as Sieges comes in with the red cannon of doom; while Dragonous calls this a physical upgrade. Stanley wants this to be snappy because he has a game to catch; so Siege fires the cannon which is called the DNA Accelarator, and we go off-screen to see Stanley's shadow growing as well as his voice growing deeper. So we head back to the Arrowhead Pond as we head to the booth with Roy Firestone on commentary pointing out to us that the Polar Bears will have to get a replacement for Stanley. Stanley then crashes through the door like a monster; grabs Roy Firestore who is still cutting hockey promos while being grabbed. AWESOME! We cut to the shot of outside the booth from the window as there is yellow light and shadow in the booth as shadow Stanley throws Roy Firestore away stage right and Roy still has enough gall to say that Stanley shoots and scores. That might be the best Roy Firestore moment in the series. Which should tell you how much this shows sucks.
Crowd is shocked as Stanley grabs the microphone and he is a purple skinned monster who is drooling from the mouth as he cuts a promo; sounding like an early prototype from The Boogyman in WWE. All it needed was Z-Grade piano music; and this would have been perfect, but this is Mighty Ducks and no one knows how to do anything right. Including selling the hockey game to children which was the whole point of this show getting green lighted in the first place! Grin proclaims that this will be the night Stanley reveals his true inner self; prompting Stanley to jump through the booth window; shatter glass and land on the ice without any signs of slipping, or falling. He landed as if he was on solid normal ground; and not WET ICE! Nosedive mocks Grin's promo as we finally see Stanley who looks like a purple skinned caveman with torn hockey gear and drools from the mouth. This is so stereotypically hockey like that it must be true. Nosedive proclaims that they are in deep trouble; and I agree with this because YOU and Mallory have already demonized this poor fellow with a hole in his rows of teeth. Yeah. This ends the segment almost eight and a half minutes in. This is just an episode so far.
After the commercial break; we see Stanley stalk the babyfaces as I realize that he has purple hair as well. All the denizens inside the arena bail out except for Phil Palmfeather who is hiding behind the seats. Wildwing swears in DUBBED ANIME STYLE (What the feathers has Stanley turned into?) as they bail while Stanley proclaims that he'll high stick them into next week. Then we cut to the booth as Roy Firestone who is sporting a right black eye and a lot of torn clothes looking like Candace after a failed busting session ; as he claims that something horrible has happened to Stanley. Ummm; no Roy, Boogyman Stanley is an improvement over regular Stanley. Stanley kills a net and throws it into the audience which apparently; half of the audience is still in the arena for no reason whatsoever. Now here's a classic Mighty Ducks moment: When the net was pulled out from the ice; there was shattered glass on the ice. That makes no sense of course; but then we see Wildwing cutting a penalty promo which prompts Stanley to uproot a section of the plexiglass and boards to throw at the babyfaces. As he did this; the exact same animation of shattered glass happened. It is so obvious that they reused the spot from the net which doesn't have glass. The ducks change and Wildwing uses the ice shield to block the section of the board; but then slips and Grin has to come in to make the save before he falls down. Wildwing proclaims that this is the first time a board checked him. Somehow I doubt that as we cut back to Roy cutting another promo. For goodness sakes Roy; GET SOME MEDICAL ATTENTION! NOW! I care more about your safety than your promo; so make like Quackie and do it! Then we get Phil in the cellphone talking to his insurance agent as he ducks down to avoid pieces of concrete (yeap; he is tearing the place asunder!) which did make me laugh. Grin skates forward to try to reason with him and Stanley punches him in the face and Grin takes the stunt duck MAN-SIZED bump through the board and out of sight.
This sounds awesome until you realize that like Mallory in Phil In The Blank; the punch missed by 12 inches; but Grin still had to oversell it as if it connected. I don't know who was behind it: BS&P being BS&P in being a pissant; or Sunwoo being Sunwoo blowing spots like they normally do. So the ducks skate in to put him on ice; they try to jump him, but fall flat on their faces because Stanley now has Mega Man 3 jumping abilities (with the knowledge of the high jump second controller trick which is supposed to be something they should have removed, but didn't) as he lands on top of the jumbotron and cuts the support beams before jumping away. The jumbotron falls towards the ice and the babyfaces dodge that with ease. The jumbotron is destroyed of course as Stanley shimmies up the wires and out of the arena. The amazing part is that during the exchanging of notes and Wildwing once again accusing Dragonous of this even before showing the evidence that it was Dragonous; the jumbotron is drawn like it is perfectly intact. Lovely continuity guys! NOT! Also; I'm getting sick and tired of Wildwing's accusing Dragonous of everything and anything to start with. This is on par with kid Freddy Jones in A Pup Named Scooby Doo accusing Red Herring of crimes he didn't commit. Sure; Dragonous IS behind this; but the ducks aren't supposed to know right now. It's like they are trying to make all this sound like a work; but it comes off as a crappy shoot! Then the lights go out; forcing Tanya to use her Omni Tool as a flashlight. Then we see Stanley ripping open the roof of the Arrowhead Pond as he taunts the ducks to get him; and Nosedive accepts the dare and calls him Jerkwing. Now Nosedive is stooping to D-level insults on Darkwing Duck! Nothing good can come out of that. So Wildwing orders Duke and Tanya to check out what is causing the black outs which is funny since Wildwing claims that Dragonous is behind this. The rest of them will deal with Stanley including Grin who has completely no-sold the bump he took into the board. They climb up the roof and out of the Arrowhead Pond while Stanley continues to taunt them, while Grin still thinks there is good in him.
Nosedive blows him off for that as Grin points out that fighting him is fruitless at this point; which Wildwing agrees with! Wildwing has been pretty good today; which is rare in this show. So Mallory points to the roof as Stanley uproots what appears to be the air conditioning system; and he cuts a promo asking why do people cheer for the Mighty Ducks and boo him. Well let's see: Stanley has broken the rules and killed the referee while the Mighty Ducks are shown playing fair and running rings around you without breaking the rules in the hockey game. Now granted; the Mighty Ducks as TMNT figures are usually vandalizing people's properties and generally responsible for allowing Dragonous to inhabit the earth (making them heels when they are supposed to be babyfaces), but if you are talking about hockey -- which Stanley is a professional (goon) in -- the Mighty Ducks are indeed the good guys; while Stanley is clearly the evil goon. That is why the fans cheer the ducks and boo Stanley. So it's totally fair. So Stanley throws the thing; and it is dodged with ease. Then we do the wobble floor spot to force the babyfaces over the roof and they all hang on for dear life. The hilarious thing about this is: Grin is the biggest duck and yet he is holding onto the legs of the lightest duck of the group Nosedive. This is on par with Kit Cloudkicker managing to crank Baloo up to safety in Last Horizons; and Rebecca holding onto Baloo's legs to get an item in Feminine Air. Sadly; Nosedive is not awesome, so screw him! Stanley's promo about putting them on the bench for keeps is more good heelish promo cutting. Nosedive complains about getting a wedgie despite the fact that Grin is holding onto his ankles; and Grin ponders about his master's teaching which Nosedive panics because he hates flashbacks. I don't hate flashbacks; I hate TELEGRAPHING when a flashback is supposed to occur. So we head back to Tai Quack Do's hockey dojo as Tai is sitting down crosslegged using his hockey stick as a staff; while Grin is kneeling down in front of him asking questions. None involving why we are doing this angle.
So Tai tells him that sometimes there are moments where the best not to fight which confuses Grin; prompting Tai to go into "angry" Tai and blows off Grin. Thrilling eh? So his training is complete, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH! So Tai goes on about honor and then talks about bagels and cream cheese which confuses even present Grin when we head back to reality (no, not really). So Grin climbs up the duck ladder much to the annoyance of Nosedive as Wildwing pleads for him not to do this; but Grin is in the zone. Stanley then punches Grin out of the zone with a punch that misses by five inches; which Grin oversells anyway and does an impact bump into the wall. Grin is still doing this promo that he will not fight. Oh sure; that worked so well for Mick Foley in ECW. NOT! Grin decides it's time to have this enlightenment the hard way; and we then cut away to a sky shot which seems to be causing a sunset background. The Aerowing is flying towards an oil refinery which is covered in electricty as Tanya and Duke deduce that Siege is behind this. So the Aerowing lands in front of the oil refinery; Duke and Tanya get out. Tanya explains to Duke that the heels have created a giant battery connected from the oil refinery to dozens of power plants. So Wraith appears to blow them off and then we see hunter drones surround the two babyfaces; which we cut away back to Grin overselling another missed punch. So Grin proclaims that Stanley's karma is almost to the dark side; but it's not too late to redeem himself. Stanley blows it off and he jumps and the roofs crumbles beneath his feet. Stanley falls through the roof and is about to smash into the jumbtron at center ice; but Grin uses the grappling hook ropes to grab him. Stanley does a neat job trying to get away from Grin; but it fails. Grin wonders how he can get to him and then we....GOD NO! ANOTHER STUPID FLASHBACK?! So yes Tai is pissed off that Grin is still in the dojo; and probably angry that Grin is still asking him questions.
Grin asks about this non fighting stuff and Tai tells him that he must set the blades of his enemy to the rightous path of hockey. This is exactly what got Kevin Johnson so pissed off about this show: It's about hockey and nothing else. This comes at the expense of plot development and logic. Kids do not care about hockey; they want great stories about the characters who played hockey. That's what made the live action movies work. Here is a classic example of why Mr. Iwata was a great choice for CEO of Nintendo over Yamaguchi: Iwata has talent as a game developer (He created Kirby for crying out loud with HAL Labs!); Yamaguchi has no experience in how games works and thus when Yamaguchi came out complaining about how we journalist had no clue about gaming; he looks stupid. If Iwata had said that; it sounds believable at least since the man has experience in what Nintendo does which is making games. That's why Wii was so successful (until they screwed it up in the last two years of it's life; but still...). Here in Mighty Ducks; the execs think that they are creative because they hold a position of authority. It fails miserably because you have to be talented in something other than counting money. Grin leaves and Tai yells to him to write because he has 20,000 people in his dojo and none of them writes. Who cares if this gets paid off or not? After all; Puckworld is DEAD in the eyes of creative anyway. So we return to reality (no, not really) as Grin climbs down and releases Stanley from the rope which allows him to take an off-screen bump onto the ice just as Grin had said that he would never harm a fellow hockey player. Oops! So Stanley is in denial over Grin saving him because hockey players are supposed to clobber each other. You know something; if this show wasn't so entrenched in trying to sell the Mighty Ducks as a hockey team to kids and actually had a clue, this would be a great way to teach the kids about the toxic culture of hockey in general (or why I said years ago that it was on it's way out due to role models being less rancid in speed skating. Nowadays; no one cares anymore.) which Stanley protrays here.
Grin allows Stanley to come over to the smashed glass boards and he sees himself in the reflection of the glass, showing him as a monster. You know Cartoon All-Stars To The Rescue is so bad when even MIGHTY DUCKS gets this analogy correct, and Grin wasn't even trying to do an analogy here. Grin offers to help Stanley return to normal; but Stanley slaps away the offer proclaiming that he is completely useless and runs out of the rink looking like he's ready to cry. Way to go Grin! Your enlightenment drove him nuts and he ran off. So Wildwing hears Tanya on the wrist communicator saying that there is an ambush at the oil refinery; so Wildwing tells them the obvious. CGI Migrator sequence occurs (you know which one) to waste some more time. So we scene change to inside a computer room as Duke and Tanya are tied up in the corner (How fitting eh?) as Dragonous cuts a promo about creating the ultimate monster as he admits that he is using the DNA Accelarator on the oil refinery to create a even bigger monster than Stanley was as Siege is "lizarding" the controls if you catch my drift. So the DNA Accelarator are propped onto metal towers around the oil refinery and shooting electricty as we see the Migrator drive into Petroyle property with Wildwing telling everyone to keep your eyes peeled for anything unusual. So then the oil refinery explodes and we get a giant electric monster. Yes folks; Dragonous' plan involves basically repeating Zap Attack; only make the monster as big as a giant apartment building. It walks to the babyfaces and that ends the segment almost 17 minutes in.
After the commercial break; we see the giant zap monster of death swipe the Migarator causing it to roll over and bounces about thirty feet away from it. Mallory wonders what the hell is going on. This show sucks Mallory; that is what is going on here. So we cut back to the heels in the house as Dragonous is proclaiming that he has a monster heel and a limitless power source; when suddenly Stanley breaks down the door and is outraged at the heels for turning him into a monster. So Wraith, Dragonous and Siege all teleport out which Stanley calls cheating. Speak for yourself you violent, grape Hulk wannabe. Stanley looks directly at Tanya and Duke; which is a tease that he is either going to kill them or release them; which both can be valid at this point. So we head outside as the monster double ax handles the Migrator just as the ducks bail out the back with the Duck Cycles; as Nosedive is the backseat driver of Grin; asking if he can be enlightened which Grin sezs no. Nosedive asks why and Grin sezs and this is a direct quote: Because he doesn't play hockey. Again; SCREW OFF SHOW! No one cares about hockey. Get over it and move on! So we get more dodging and pounding; when suddenly the metal tower with one of the DNA Accelerators falls down and traps the monster. The ducks on the Duck Cycles stop; and we pan over to notice Duke has cut the supports with his banana yellow sword, thus we can assume that Stanley freed them which we see as he comes in. Wildwing states that Grin was right all along as Nosedive acts like an idiot in front of Stanley; and Stanley claims that he changed his mind because Grin was the only babyface who made sense! Is David Wise a ghost writing name for Vince Russo?! OH MY GOD! This isn't even the worst part of this. So the monster gets up and stalks the babyfaces; causing Stanley to run in and punch and kiss the monster's ass; which prompts Grin to say that the lotus blooms in unexpected ways. So the monster ties him to it's belly and shocks Stanley into returning to normal. Wait; what?
This prompts Nosedive to say that the bloom is off the lotus (how symbolic for this show eh?) and Stanley gets dropped on his belly on the ground. So then the monster crashes into an oil tank and it explodes on contact. Okay; fine. Tanya proclaims that the remaining oil tanks will fry Anaheim. How? There are only THREE oil tanks left! One of them exploded and did little damage from what I have seen. This is being paranoid and it doesn't help the monster gain any heat as a heel. So Nosedive cuts another promo which might as well make Nosedive into a sociopath. Now this episode hasn't been good so far; and now it's going to get worse because Wildwing and company realize that the way to defeat this monster is to user water on him; thus invoking the Pokemon weakness of doom. WHAT?! Didn't they already use water in a previous episode with a smaller creature which is basically the same as this one. So not only did they redo the main monster from Zap Attack; they are using the same weakness that is illogical in real life against it. Who is booking this...Oh wait; it's David Wise. Screw you David; screw you in your ass, please! This finish sucks so hard! Here's the finish in a nutshell: Wildwing and Nosedive taunt the electric monster. Monster goes after Wildwing and Nosedive. Tanya welds the conveniently placed water tower (which was shown when they were showing off the Pokemon weakness) as Mallory and Duke bring out the ROPE TRIPPER OF DOOM. Wildwing and Nosedive skate past Mallory and Duke. Duke and Mallory invoke the rope. The monster trips into the perfect position as Grin and Stanley push the water tower right onto the monster. The water tower breaks; water splashes onto the monster; monster explodes, babyfaces won. That is it everyone; and way to go in making Dragonous look like the dumbest villain in history. Nosedive is happy and Mallory does the Gruffi pose because Stanley is back to normal, for better or for worse.
Stanley proclaims that he owes them an apology and Wildwing simply states that just cleaning up his game would be enough. Stanley admits that he has no place in hockey and since hockey is for nobles; he decides to walk off and basically quit hockey forever. The ducks are a bit confused by this as Grin has rubbed off on him somewhat. So then we return to the arena as we the ducks are facing another cheesy colored team with another new goon; whom I do not give a damn about as he trips one of the ducks with the stick; and then does a clean body check on Nosedive (YAY!), and then clobbers the referee like Stanley did as the whistle is blown to stop play. Roy Firestone is still sporting the black eye as Grin helps Nosedive up asking if this guy can be enlightened; but Grin sezs it's not likely, but he might get it soon anyway. Then we see the replacement referee skate onto the ice as the goon skates over to mock him; and we discover that it is indeed Stanley. Yes folks; Stanley has become a referee. This is the same guy who at the beginning of the episode clobbering a referee into the boards! Now this sounds stupid until you realize; this has happened before in real life in other professions. I do recall a story by the lurkers of Respectful Insolance that someone was working with a harden criminal and he showed him stories of the people whom he has hurt/killed and tried to get him to think of them as people rather than cartoons. Even then; the harden criminal broke down and cried, and this lead him into a life as a psychologist. So this actually makes sense as a storyline and for the most part; I do like the ending of this because Stanley comes in and basically ejects the goon for clobbering the referee, which was something the other refs were NOT doing. So when it comes to Stanley; excellent job with his character. Nosedive is shocked as Grin proclaims that hockey works in mysterious ways. NO IT DOES NOT GRIN! That ends the episode at 21:06. Stanley tried hard; but it does him no good when the writers are more concerned with selling hockey and getting it over instead of getting the characters over. Something tells me Robert and Marty's version of this episode was much less about hockey and more about psychology; which would have been a great episode if David Wise simply stayed out of it. Of course he didn't and the result is another crappy episode with a good character. * 1/2 (30%).
THE REVIEW LINE
This episode frustrated me the most in the four episodes that I did this week. Dave's two episodes should have been good, but they ended up being awful because the characters are unlikable; so it was a massive disappointment. The Most Dangerous Duck Hunt could have been good; but that was mostly due to apathy. This one outraged me because it had a great idea for a storyline: A goon sees the error of his way and become a hockey referee. Stanley was a great character here and with a bit better writing, this would be the best guest heel to babyface character in the series. I loved the ending because he finally realized the error of his way and decided to change. Also; the ending made sense in the context of real life as I mentioned in the rant about a real life story someone from RI in the comments in an article there about Autism and how they have been demonized due to the Anti-Vaccine movement. Anyhow; the idea was great, the execution was TERRIBLE! I don't blame Marty nor Robert for this debacle because I think they had the right idea. It's David Wise that deserves the verbal tongue lashing for this debacle: He basically redos Zap Attack for the monsters and the finish as well; rendering Dragonous into even weaker villain than he already was. The whole Grin subplot of his backstory was a complete clustermuck and nothing about it was funny if that was what they were shooting for in Tai Quack Do's old fart routine; which sucked for the most part. Add in logic breaks and Sunwoo blowing spots (three punches missed the head by at least six inches and they still oversold them; HOW?) and this was another bad episode in a series of them for this week. So this weekend; I'll be working on the first rant on the night before my birthday and then do the second one at it's normal time. It'll be a Mighty Ducks rant for the Friday one; in the middle of the season as I usually do. So....
Thumbs down for this episode and I'll see you all next time.